Free and open to the public, “Renaissance Leadership: Reflections from a Journey in Global Health,” will focus on building resilient global leaders. Edward will present scenarios from different countries and pose questions to the audience on what strategies they would consider to drive change.

“Dr. Edward’s professional focus on community-based health systems and her plan to present case studies for us to examine together make this a fitting start to this Colloquium series,” said Amy McNichols, director of Global Initiatives and associate professor of Spanish. “These conversations will cultivate in our students a deeper understanding of some of the most pressing global issues of our time.”

The first of a semiannual series, the colloquium is part of the Global Fellows Program, a new academic and co-curricular opportunity as of spring 2013. Meant to enhance academic study in any discipline, membership in the Global Fellows Program formally acknowledges a student’s commitment to global learning and results in a special notation on his or her transcript.

The 20 members of the inaugural class are working with McNichols to organize, publicize and prepare for the colloquium. Additionally, students in the program invest in their global learning through increased international coursework, advanced language study, study abroad, community outreach and a globally focused senior capstone project.

McNichols anticipates that the colloquium will encourage the audience “to develop a greater capacity for perspective shifting, known to be central to a more reciprocal, ethical and mindful approach to global citizenship.”

Edward, who teaches full-time in the department of International Health, has over 15 years of experience, mostly in Africa and Asia, providing technical assistance to several USAID funded initiatives for program planning and evaluation and developing community-based systems for improved health service delivery. This work included focus in countries emerging from or currently in conflict, such as Cambodia, Rwanda, Mozambique and Mindanao, Philippines.

More recently, her research has focused on evaluating the health system performance measures for the World Bank, Pan American Health Organization, and John Snow, Inc. Edward is currently a co-principal investigator for the evaluation of the Afghanistan Ministry’s national program for Strengthening Health Services for the Rural Poor and also the principal investigator for a feasibility research project on community scorecards to improve health service quality and utilization for the Future Health Systems Consortium. She also leads the JHU partnership with Management Sciences for Health for USAID’s Leadership Management and Governance Project.